2- Learning Tool - Virtual Immersive Learning Environments.

An existing idea we have been looking at is the cave design which works with projectors projecting on 5 surfaces, top, front, left, right and bottom.  with screens all around you, you feel fully immersed. but this does create the issue of if you walk in this environment you walk straight into the projection screen. So depending on the way we want people to interact with there environment this may not be a viable option to work on.

This idea i like to call the hamster ball, projctors project onto a ball which acts a screen. The image which are projected are stitched in such a way which allows a whole image to be projected. The way the ball which becomes on your environment moves, allows you to move freely in any direction while still being completely immersed.

There is another option, still using the ball idea we create the environment purely using immersive vision goggles. The ball is still present allowing you tom move round in your environment withough the extra cost and fuss of multiple projectors.  We would need to implement sensors on the user so we can track there movement and be able to make the environment to react to there movements. whether it is them digging up samples or blocking the sun from their eyes. This could also work with the lab environment, when they want to pick up test tubes and such from the lab surfaces.

These are just ideas for possible methods of implementing our environment. very important when planning our interface designs, in how our user will be able to move around.

1- Learning Tool - Idea

Virtual Immersive Environments

This project is about desinging a method of learning using existing technologies. We are not required to implement our designs as of yet. For this assignment we are asked to work in pairs. My collegue is William Skates and this project is what we like to call Virtual Immersive learning Environments. For this project we are specialising on science as our learning field. We have two eliments we are hoping to explore which are "in lab" experimantation and "field trip" experimentation.

 In Lab
The purpose of  an in lab experiment it erases the issue of health and safety. In a digital experiment there are no dangerous chemicals which could either blind you or potentially blow you up. It allows you to experiment with chemicals  which have had there stats inputted into our databas to the outcome has already been recorded, to be safely explored withought weeks of planning, applying for parental permissions and also makes science a bit more fun.

Field Trip
This has the same health and safety advantages as lab experiments with an added cost benefit. imagine being able to go out and take samples to learn about your environment without the cost of hiring a coach and wasting time on permission forms. We are planning on making the environments ans interactive as possible creating the feeling that you are actually there.

Obviously if this was to be created into a produvt it would cost a lot, but think of the saving in the long run? i meen yea you can take a trip to the lakes for soil testing... but what about the moon? with our idea our learning facility we would be able to make it all possible.

At the moment it is just an idea, now its our job to work out the specifics, create interface designs and make it all possible.

Reflexive Design - Visual Perception

Looking at resources and information on visual perception after having lectures from Katina has led me to find some interesting videos. These videos helps us explore our perception and how we see things under different conditions. This video looks at light and colour perception.

3- Reflexive Design- Storyboard

Here is the story board for the video. Pretty basic but it gives you an idea. The numbers symbolise the scenes i am using the transitions are included in the description under each image.

2 - Reflexive Design - Clouds

reating my clouds using different methods here is one of my renders. The idea was i wanted it to feel like you were going into the clouds. this render was visually unacceptable. So i planned to look online to see how others have created the "fly through" or "fly over" effect.



Here is one example which i found on "YouTube",  i feel works extremely well. changing the opacity of cloud shapes creating the idea they are passing under you and you are passing through them without the clouds dominating the screen. this gave me the inspiration to go for the less is more approach.

Researching photoshop brushes i created a strip of clouds.

I removed the blue layer and inserted into after effects. I copied multiple layers and staggered them along the timeline. by increasing the position and scale then playing with the  opacity i created the effect i was looking for. this is the result.

Reflexive Design-Tunnel Design

Looking further through youtube for ideas and inspiration i found this video. Reminded me a  little bit of a  journey from a dreamworld. Got me thinking maybe i could include this sort of idea into my video.

Tunnel/Pipe Tutorial.

Here is how I created the tunnel using Blender.

Delete the cube from your work area.

Press space, select ADD, CURVE and then BEZIER CURVE.

Next select "Edit Mode" from the menu at the bottom of the page. Right-click on the yellow dots to modify your curve and left click once you are happy with your shape.

Deselect your curve (hold Shift and right-click object) and select object menu from the menu at the bottom. Press space once again and selectADD, CURVE and then BEZIER CIRCLE. Then press "S" to shrink the circle down.

Change the object label of the circle to "X".

Then select the curve and change Bevel Object Label to "X" and press enter.

You should now have a tube. Click on the two spheres on the lower toolbar and select "ADD NEW".

Then select the animal print square button (Texture) and select"ADD NEW".

That should bring you to this screen. select "TEXTURE TYPE" and then "CLOUDS" then there will be a "COLOR" button on the right, select that.

Then click back on the spheres, and select the shaded option shown by the red arrow.

Your tunnel should now be multi-coloured.

Now to get the camera through your newly created tunnel. Right-click on the camera then hold Shift and right-click on the tunnel. make sure your mouse is in the workspace area and press CTRL+P. select "FOLLOW PATH" from the drop down menu. Select camera view. press ALT+A you now have an animation of your camera moving through the tunnel.

To slow the animation down, Go back into the object menus and increase the path length.

Here is my completed tunnel animation. Using the follow path parent technique the camera follows the tunnel withough the hassle of keyframing. In after effects i added  a solid green circle with a translusent outline to soften the edges of the tunnels exit and keyed in position and scale so it moved when the exit of the tunnel moved. I will key out the green at the end of the tunnel and replace with the cloud simulation.

1 - Reflexive Design - Re-presenting Reality

 #bdat
Brief.

"Produce a short film for the IVT, which encapsulates an interpretation, or explores an aspect of perception and representation. We have primarily focused on visual perception, but you are welcome to consider all elements within the perceptual field. Through the lecture series you should develop an understanding of theoretical foundations of perceptual development and capacity - particularly those relating to the embodiment in perception: biological, physical, cultural, social, and environmental factors, which are active in visual processes."

IVT- Immersive Vision Theatre was origionally a Planetarium (built in 1967),  it has now been developed into a 40 seat Immersive Vision Theatre (IVT). It is an instrument for displaying imaginary worlds in an immersive environment. The dome uses a fish eye lense to wrap video round the edges of the domes surface to create the visual capability of filling your whole perceptive view with the visualisations created and projected. When your whole perception is taken over with these videos you become part of its world, the visualisation becomes your environment.


Here an example of a video created for Domefest 2008. This video uses vibrant colouration on a black background, creating a very effective visualisation. This video is called Liquid / Light / Flow

I am quite the dreamer so for my IVT video i wanted to create something based on a dream, or dreams. weither it is a collective of dreams i have had or dreams others have had or a dream i have had i am not yet sure. but of course in order to get into my dream world i would need to fall asleep... so first step is the sleping animation.

This is the eye i created in order to create the falling assleep effect, i have coloured the two sections differently in order to show the two parts.the idea is, the domes contain the camera, the camera looks out through the gap. the eye will close partially, then open a little, then close  a little more, then open a little then close completely.simulating a gradual fall to sleep over around 7 seconds. during which i will show the title of my piece.

Bellow: this is a clip of what the outcome is from blender, i will now need to put it through aftereffects, greenscreen in an image of my room from the view of my bed, and add some motion blurr.

Here are the keyframes i used to create the blurr  effect.

Here is the intro to the video without the title sequence